/  S^  :.  < 


INAUGURATION 


OF    THE 


REV.  FRANCIS  LANDEY  PATTON,   D.D.,   LL.D., 


PRESIDENT  OF  PRINCETON  COLLEGE. 


Princeton,  N.  J.,  June  20th,  i 


/ 


>^ 


I. 
Order  of  Ceremonies. 

II. 

Address    on    behalf   of   the    College, 

By  Rev.  JAMES  O.  MURRAY,  D.D.,  LLD., 
Dean  of  the  College. 


III. 

Address    on    behalf    of    the    Alumni, 

By  the  Rev.  HENRY  VAN  DYKE,  D.D,  '73. 
President    of  the    Princeton    Club    of    New    York. 

IV. 

Inaugural  Address, 

By  PRESIDENT  PATTON. 


SERVICES    AT    THE    INAUGURATION 

OF    THE 

REV.  FRANCIS  LANDEY  PATTON,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

AS  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  COLLEGE  OF  NEW  JERSEY, 

Wednesday,  June  20,  1888. 


PRESIDING  OFFICER 

His   Excellency    ROBERT  S.  GREEN,  LL.D., 
Governor  of  New  Jersey. 


The  procession  fo^nned  in  the  campus  in  front  of  Nassau  Hall 

at  tzuo  d clock  p.  m. 

GRAND  MARSHAL,  SUSSEX  D.  DAVIS,  Esq.,  '59. 


Order  of  Procession. 

1.  The  Governor  of  the  State  and  the  President  of  the  College. 

2.  The  President-Elect  and  the  Chancellor  of  the  State. 

3.  The  Officiating  Clergymen  and  Orators  of  the  day. 

4.  The  Trustees  of  the  College. 

5.  The  Faculty  of  the  College. 

6.  The  Trustees,  Directors  and  Faculty,  of  the  Princeton  Theological  Seminary. 

7.  Invited  Guests.  • 

8.  The  Alumni. 

9.  The  Fellows  and  University  Students. 

10.  Alumni  of  other  Colleges. 

11.  Undergraduates. 

12.  Citizens. 

The  procession  moved  as  soon  as  formed  to  the  First  Church. 


Order  of  Exercises. 


I.     MUSIC.  Organ  Prelude. 

Chorale — Veni  Creator  Spiritus. 

ORGAN,  ORCHESTRA,  CHOIR. 

II.     OPENING  PRAYER, 

The  Rev.  THEODORE  L.  CUYLER,  D  D.,  LL.D. 

III.  ADDRESS  ON  BEHALF  OF  THE  COLLEGE, 

Professor  JAMES  O.  MURRAY,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
Dean  of  the  College. 

IV.  ADDRESS  ON  BEHALF  OF  THE  ALUMNI, 

The  Rev.  HENRY  VAN  DYKE,  D.D., 

President  of  the  Princeton  Club  of  New  York. 

V.     MUSIC,  EiN  Feste  Burg,  Martin  Luther. 

ORCHESTRA,  CHOIR  AND  CONGREGATION. 

VI.     ADMINISTRATION    OF  THE   OATH    OF  OFFICE   TO  THE    PRESIDENT- 
ELECT. 

Hon.  ALEXANDER  T.  McGILL,  Jr., 

Chancellor  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey. 

VII.     DELIVERY  OF  THE  CHARTER  AND  KEYS  OF  THE  COLLEGE  TO  THE 

PRESIDENT-ELECT, 

The  Rev.  JAMES  McCOSH,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Litt.D. 

President  of  the  College. 

VIII.     INAUGURAL  ADDRESS, 

The  Rev.  FRANCIS  LANDEY  PATTON,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
President-Elect. 

IX.     MUSIC,  The  Old  Hundredth  Psalm. 

ORCHESTRA,  CHOIR  AND  CONGREGATION. 


X.  CONCLUDING  PRAYER. 
XI.  BENEDICTION, 


Professok  WILLIAM  HENRY  GREEN,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


Vice-Chancellor  TELFAIR  HODGSON,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

XII      MUSIC,  Postlude. 

ORCHESTRA  AND  ORGAN. 


Committee. 

JAMES  W.  ALEXANDER,  A.M.,  Chairman. 

SAMUEL  H.  PENNINGTON,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  JOHN  A.  STEWART,  A.M., 

WILLIAM  HENRY  GREEN,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  CHARLES  E.  GREEN,  AM., 

Wn,LTAM  M.  PAXTON,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  JAMES  O.  MURRAY,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

E.  R.  CRAVEN,  D.D.,  CHARLES  W.  SHIELDS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

ANDREW  F.  WEST,  Ph.D. 
M.  TAYLOR  PYNE.  LL.P..,  Secretary. 


ADDRESS  ON   BEHALF  OF  THE  COLLEGE. 


n^HERE  is  but  one  other  Commencement  In  the  history  of  the 
■'•  college,  which  may  claim  an  interest  as  engrossing  as  that  which 
centres  in  the  Commencement  of  1888,  It  is  the  Com.mencement 
of  1748,  first  in  the  lengthening  series,  held  at  Newark,  Nov.  9th 
of  that  year.  On  the  morning  of  that  day,  the  Trustees,  presided 
over  by  his  Excellency  Jonathan  Belcher,  Governor  and  Com- 
mander in  chief  of  the  Province  of  New  Jersey,  had  unanimously 
chosen  to  the  Presidency  of  the  College,  the  Rev.  Aaron  Burr. 
The  public  exercises  then  began  with  a  solemn  prayer  of  the 
President  elect  to  God  in  the  English  tongue  (as  the  chronicle 
of  the  day  reports)  for  a  blessing  upon  the  public  transactions  of 
the  day,  upon  his  majesty  King  George  the  Second  and  Royal 
family,  upon  the  British  Nation  and  Dominions,  *  *  *  ^^^^ 
particularly  upon  the  infant  College  of  New  Jersey.  Then  the 
assembly  were  called  on  to  stand  up  and  hearken  to  his  Majesty's 
Royal  Charter  granted  to  the  Trustees  of  the  College. 

The  exercises  of  the  afternoon  were  opened  by  President 
Burr,  who  gave  an  eloquent  oration  in  the  Latin  tongue,  delivered 
memoriter.  The  address,  judging  from  the  report  made  of  it  to 
the  Pennsylvania  J oii7^7ial,  is  marked  by  the  breadth  of  its  views 
regarding  the  province  of  college  education.  It  recognized  the 
fraternity  of  American  Colleges,  by  a  graceful  tribute  to  Harvard 
and  Yale  "which  have  now  flourished  for  many  years,  and  have 
sent  forth  many  hundreds  of  learned  men  *  *  *  \\^2X  in  dif- 
ferent periods  have  proved  the  honor  and  ornament  of  their 
Country,  and  of  which  the  one  or  the  other  had  been  the  Alma 
Mater  of  most  of  the  Literati  then  present."  The  address  closed 
by  expressing  the  conviction  that  "learning  *  *  *  had  now 
begun  to  dawn  upon  the  Province  of  New  Jersey,"  and  by 
eulogizing  the  ample  provisions  and  liberal  terms  of  the  Royal 


8 

Charter.  Six  young  scholars  were  then  admitted  to  the  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  and  among  them  stood  Richard  Stockton,  a 
future  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The  Trustees 
completed  the  business  of  the  day  by  the  adoption  of  a  Corpora- 
tion Seal.  Its  mystic  symbolism  Is  thus  Interpreted.  In  the 
upper  part  of  the  circle,  a  Bible  spread  open,  with  Latin  characters 
inscribed  on  the  left  side  signifying  the  Old  Testament,  and  on 
the  right  side,  the  New  with  this  motto  over  it,  "Vitae  lumen 
mortuis  reddit."  Underneath  on  one  side  a  table  with  books 
standing  thereon  to  signify  the  proper  business  of  the  student, 
on  the  other  a  diploma  with  the  college  seal  appended,  over  it 
being  written  "  meriti  praemium,"  to  signify  that  the  degrees  to 
be  conferred  are  only  to  those  that  deserve  them. 

The  principles  to  govern  the  future  growth  of  the  College 
were  thus  fully  set  forth,  as  we  consider  the  charter,  the  first 
inaugural  address,  and  the  college  seal,  viz:  that  education  here 
was  to  be  something  altogether  broader  than  mere  training  of 
godly  men  for  the  ministry,  and  on  the  other  hand  that  education 
here  was  to  be  in  its  profoundest  sense  Christian.  By  such  ties  then, 
are  the  Commencements  of  1748  and  1888,  linked  together.  The 
infant  College  of  New  Jersey  in  1748,  having  escaped  all  the  ills 
incident  to  college  childhood — especially  Its  most  dangerous  foe, 
want  of  nourishment — aspires  In  1888  to  be  the  University 
of  Princeton.  The  life  of  Institutions,  as  history  fully  attests,  is 
determined  largely,  If  not  absolutely  fixed,  by  the  spirit  of  their 
founders.  Be  that  liberal  and  progressive,  the  type  is  there,  as 
the  oak  In  the  acorn.  But  while  this  is  unquestionably  true,  we 
cannot  forget  that  the  men  who  preside  over  their  expansion 
must  be  men  comprehending  fully  and  In  hearty  sympathy  with, 
the  principles  governing  their  foundation.  Such  In  fact  have 
been  the  men  who  in  this  country  have  been  chosen  to  this  high 
office.  The  Presidents  of  our  American  Colleges  have  from  the 
beginning  been  men  of  noble  mark,  the  very  elect  in  their  callings, 
leaders  in  the  church,  not  seldom  leaders  in  both  Church  and 
State.  No  other  class  of  men  have  done  more  than  they  to  build 
up  our  American  civilization  which,  though    according    to    Mr. 


9 

Matthew  Arnold,  it  may  not  be  interesting,  seems  somehow  to 
have  a  profound  significance  for  the  student  of  history.  Yes, 
American  College  Presidents  have  moulded  the  life  of  the  State, 
quite  as  much  as  that  of  the  Church.  If  they  have  not  always 
been  profound  scholars,  they  have  been  men,  whose  characters 
educated  those  under  them,  for  after  all  it  is  the  force  of  character 
in  the  teacher  back  of  his  learning,  which  is  the  most  powerful 
factor  in  his  work.  The  mention  of  such  names  as  may  be  found 
among  the  presidents  of  Harvard;  of  President  Dwight  of  Yale 
(whose  lineal  descendant  and  namesake,  holding  the  same  posi- 
tion, graces  by  his  presence  our  festivities  to-day);  of  Presidents 
Wayland  and  Hopkins,  is  both  illustration  and  proof  of  this 
statement.  And  as  I  run  rapidly  over  the  list  of  our  own  College 
Presidents,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Presidency  of  the  College  of 
New  Jersey  has  been  ever  held  by  men  of  whom  any  institution 
might  be  proud,  men  who  through  varying  fortune  have  led  the 
college  from  its  infancy  up  to  the  position  it  holds  to-day,  at 
home  and  abroad. 

President  Dickmso7t  was  the  first;  in  office  less  than  a  year, 
dying  untimely  in  the  ripeness  of  his  learning,  of  great  practical 
wisdom,  with  every  gift  to  guide  successfully  the  fortunes  of  the 
young  institution.  Succeeded  by  President  Bttrr,  who  brought 
to  his  of^cial  work,  high  powers  of  organizing  and  administration, 
and  under  whose  presidency,  the  college  at  once  strode  to  influence, 
eulogized  at  his  death,  by  Benjamin  Franklin  as  "a  great  scholar 
and  a  very  great  man."  Then  came  that  greatest  of  names 
among  American  theologians,  Jonathan  Edwards,  who  by  his 
untimely  death,  just  after  induction  to  office,  has  left  here  only 
the  legacy  of  his  illustrious  name.  After  him  Samuel  Davies, 
that  foremost  of  American  preachers,  whose  monument  is  seen 
to-day  on  our  campus,  Nassau  Hall,  miscalled  North  College, 
the  means  for  building  which  he,  before  his  appointment  to  the 
Presidency,  obtained  from  friends  in  England  and  Scotland:  in 
office  only  two  short  years,  but  wielding  a  noble  and  powerful  in- 
fluence in  behalf  of  the  College  abroad  and  at  home,  building  his 
own  character  into  it  even  in  that  short  time.      Next  Samuel Finley, 


lO 

the  man  of  various  learning,  an  eminent  divine,  and  well  described 
in  his  epitaph  as, 

Artibus,  literisque  excultus, 
Prge  ceteris  prascipue  enituit, 
Rerum  divinarum  scientia. 

And  so  in  succession  y*?/^??  Witherspoon,  whose  services  as  an 
American  patriot  and  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
only  bring  into  more  conspicuity,  his  distinguished  administration 
of  the  college  presidency,  and  whose  Scotch  birth  proves  that  men 
may  be  born  British  subjects  and  yet  form  American  citizens  in 
every  fibre  of  their  being.  Samuel  Stanhope  Smith,  the  man  of 
elegant  culture,  infusing  into  the  college  life  its  refining  power,  and 
of  whom  Washinorton  wrote  to  his  namesake  Georee  Washington 
Custis,  sometime  a  student  here,  "  No  college  has  turned  out 
better  scholars,  or  more  estimable  characters  than  Nassau,  nor  is 
there  any  whose  president  is  thought  more  expert  to  direct  a 
proper  system  of  education  than  Dr.  Smith."  AsJibel  Gi-een,  that 
born  leader  in  the  American  Presbyterian  Church,  the  intimate 
friend  of  the  saintly  Bishop  White,  and  whose  firm  hand  the 
college  felt  as  he  took  the  helm,  and  who  brought  to  his  great 
work  a  reputation  for  theological  ability,  only  second  to  that  for 
practical  energy.  James  Carnahan,  sagacious,  laborious  in  execu- 
tive work,  less  of  the  scholar  than  mosf  of  his  predecessors,  but 
wise  enough  to  bring  into  the  Faculty  such  men  as  Joseph  Henry, 
Stephen  Alexander,  Albert  Dod,  John  Torrey,  Joseph  Addison, 
and  James  W.  Alexander  pa7'  nobile  fratrtim.  John  Maclean, 
whose  name  as  I  speak  it  calls  up  that  venerated  form  so  lately 
vanished  from  his  native  town,  whose  life  is  one  long  record  of 
devotion  to  the  college,  whose  courage  and  faith  stood  true  in 
the  dark  hours  of  its  history,  the  courtly,  benign,  beloved,  thrice- 
beloved  of  teachers  and  of  Presidents.  Lastly,  and  how  nobly 
crowning  the  succession, yi27;/^jr  McCosh,  who  would  have  been 
famous  in  philosophy,  had  he  never  been  President,  but  whose 
twenty  years  in  Princeton  constitute  the  most  distinguished  era 
in  its  history. 


1 1 


And  to-day  we  add  another,  the  twelfth  of  these  apostles  of 
learninor  and  religion,  President  Patton. 

In  behalf,  therefore,  of  the  College;  of  the  Trustees  who  have 
chosen  you  to  this  high  office;  of  the  Faculty  heartily  approving, 
sincerely  rejoicing  in  their  choice;  of  the  students  who  admire  no 
less  than  they  prize  the  many  qualities  which  determined  your 
selection  for  the  post,  I  bid  you,  President  Patton,  our  most 
sincere  and  enthusiastic  welcome.  We  pledge  you  our  most 
generous  co-operation.  We  have  the  proud  confidence  that  you 
will  rise  to  meet  the  greater  responsibilities  of  a  greater  future 
for  Princeton,  be  it  college  or  university,  with  triumphant  success. 
And  when  the  Commencement  of  1897  dawns  on  us,  as  the 
college  shall  then  have  rounded  out  its  century  and  a  half  of 
historic  achievement,  we  are  well  assured  that  your  administra- 
tion will  have  abundantly  proved  itself  the  worthiest  of  successors 
to  the  noble  lineage  of  our  college  presidencies. 


ADDRESS  ON   BEHALF  OF  THE  ALUMNI. 


'T^HE  task  which  has  been  assigned  to  me  to-day  is  illuminated 
in  my  mind  by  a  large  and  brilliant  sense  of  incompetency 
to  perform  it.  Old  Princeton  has  more  than  three  thousand 
living  sons,  and  at  least  as  many  daughters-in-law,  actual  and 
prospective.  What  man  could  hope  to  utter  with  sufficient 
brevity  to  keep  alive  the  soul  of  wit,  the  sentiments  with  which 
they  regard  the  accession  of  a  new  President  to  this  venerable, 
renowned,  and  beneficent  institution? 

But  one  thing  at  least  shall  not  fail  in  this  address.  Others 
could  speak  more  eloquently;  none  shall  speak  more  warmly  and 
sincerely.  Bound  by  personal  gratitude  to  the  grand  old  man 
who  in  our  day  found  Princeton  brick  and  leaves  it  brownstone, 
bound  by  personal  friendship  to  the  strong  new  man  whose  keen 
intellect  and  genial  spirit  won  my  boyish  admiration  in  my  father's 
house,  I  can  speak  from  the  heart,  in  saying  to  him  whose  work 
is  crowned  Be^tedichts,  and  to  him  whose  work  is  inaugurated, 
Benedicatur.  And  whatever  power  my  voice  may  lack  shall  be 
supplied  by  many  voices  saying  heartily  Amen. 

The  past  is  completed:  it  needs  no  eulogy.  The  future 
appears:  it  needs  only  a  greeting.  To  you.  Sir,  in  the  spirit  of 
hope,  all  the  Alumni  of  the  institution  of  which  you  are  now  the 
head,  offer  a  sincere  and  cordial  welcome.  Welcome!  'Tis  a 
good  old  word,  and  we  use  it  for  two  reasons.  We  believe  that 
you  have  come  well, — by  fair  and  honorable  means, — to  this  high 
place.  And  we  believe  that  it  is  well  that  you  have  come  to  a 
position  which  you  promise  to  fill  and  to  adorn. 

Let  us  rehearse,  with  due  regard  to  the  modesty  of  President 
Patton,  a  few  of  the  reasons  for  the  faith  that  is  in  us.  Of  intel- 
lectual qualifications  let  those  speak  who  have  felt  the  keenness 
of  his  lance  in   philosophic  tournament.      His  adversaries  shall 


13 

praise  him  in  the  gates.  But  we  who  are  his  friends,  rejoice,  first 
of  all,  in  the  conviction,  drawn  from  his  own  words,  that  he  is  an 
American  in  spirit,  as  he  will  soon  be  in  name.  We  think  little 
of  the  accident  that  he  was  born  out  of  his  native  country.  It 
was  due  to  circumstances  over  which  he  had  no  control.  It  has 
little  bearing  upon  his  nationality.  In  fact,  Sir,  you  are  like  the 
Irishman  at  Cork  who  was  asked  whether  he  was  a  native  of  that 
county.  "For  the  most  part  I  am,"  said  he.  "How  is  that?" 
said  the  judge.  "  Faix,  yer  Honor,"  said  Pat,  "whin  I  came  here 
from  Limerick  me  weight  was  siven  stone,  and  that  part  o'  me  is 
Limerick.  But  now  I'm  siventeen  stone,  and  tin  stone  of  it  is 
Cork!"  The  best  part  of  you  is  American;  and  we  believe  that  you 
will  not  only  keep  this  college  true  in  its  loyal  service  to  our  great 
Republic,  but  that  you  will  also  set  an  example  to  its  students 
in  the  practical  discharge  of  all  the  duties  of  good  American 
citizenship. 

The  Alumni  rejoice  also  in  the  fact  that  the  new  President 
is  a  believer  in  the  growth  and  development  of  Princeton.  We 
are  conservatives;  but  there  comes  a  time  when  conservatism  is 
only  possible  by  means  of  progress.  You  can  only  keep  what  you 
have  got  by  getting  more.  Such  a  time  has  arrived  here.  Forty 
professors  are  too  many  for  a  training-school,  and  too  few  for  a 
university.  We  must  either  go  forward  or  go  backward.  The 
eyes  of  the  new  President,  like  those  of  his  predecessor,  are  in 
the  front  of  his  head.  We  shall  be  Sflad  with  him,  when  the  last 
swaddling-band  of  an  outgrown  name  drops  from  the  infant,  and 
the  "College  of  New  Jersey"  stands  up  straight  in  the  centre  of 
the  middle  states  as  the  University  at  Princeton. 

This  is  not  possible  upon  a  sectarian  basis.  But,  at  least  for 
us,  it  is  only  possible  upon  a  distinctly  Christian  basis.  It  were 
better  that  this  institution  should  close  its  doors  to-morrow  than 
cease  to  stand  inflexibly  for  Christ  and  His  truth. 

Several  things  are  needed  before  the  advancement  of  Prince- 
ton can  be  accomplished, — larger  endowments,  more  instructors, 
more  fellowships,  more  students.  But  there  Is  one  thing  which 
we  hope  will  not  be  forgotten:  and  that  is  a  stronger  allegiance 


\^ 


14 

and  a  closer  corporate  spirit  among  the  whole  body  of  the  Alumni. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  this  can  be  developed  merely  through  the 
digestive  and  financial  organs, — that  is  to  say  by  eating  annual 
dinners  and  passing  the  contribution  box.  At  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge the  graduates  are  part  of  the  governing  body.  Harvard, 
Yale,  Cornell,  Amherst,  Williams,  Brown  and  other  colleges  have 
called  their  sons  into  active  partnership  in  the  firm.  This  seems 
essential  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  idea  of  a  University.  How  it  is  to 
be  accomplished  for  Princeton  it  does  not  become  us  to  suggest. 
We  believe  that  President  Patton  desires  it;  and  we  say  to  him  in 
familiar  language,  "Please  now,  Sir,  bring  it  out  in  your  own  way." 
There  is  one  other  point  on  which  the  utterances  of  the  new 
President  have  griven  orreat  satisfaction  to  the  Alumni.  He  is  in 
v/  favor  of  Athletics.  We  do  not  expect  him  to  make  touch-downs 
or  base-hits,  or  to  enter  the  arena  among  the  gladiators  to 

"pat  their  brawny  arms 
"And  stake  his  sesterces  upon  their  gore." 

On  the  contrary  we  hope  that  he  will  diligently  suppress  those 
gladiatorial  features  which  now  dishonor  intercollegiate  athletics. 
But  we  look  to  the  head  of  this  collesfe  to  encourage  amone  all 
the  students  those  active  games  in  which  gentlemen  contend  with 
each  other,  not  for  gate-money,  prizes,  or  championships,  but  for 
mutual  pleasure  and  the  development  of  manly  courage,  patience, 
strength  and  self-control. 

None  could  understand  better  than  yourself,  Sir,  the  ardu- 
ous responsibilities  and  difficulties  of  your  position.  How  they 
are  to  be  met,  it  is  your  task  to  discover  and  devise.  Our  chief 
desire  is  that  you  shall  have  a  free  course  and  full  support.  When 
the  vessel  is  to  pass  between  the  Scylla  of  radicalism  and  the 
Charybdis  of  reaction,  it  needs  a  Ulysses,  not  as  a  figure-head  at 

"^         the  bow,  but  as  a  helmsman  at  the  stern.      The  rudder  is  in  your 
charee. 

Alumni,  don't  talk  to  the  man  at  the  wheel!  Let  him  steer. 
But  say ''God  speed  the  ship";  and  bear  a  hand;  and  give  a  cheer 

V'        for  Patton  the  new  Pilot  of  Princeton. 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


AlfE   listened  this  morning  to  the  story  of  "Twenty  Years  of 
*^*     Princeton,"   as  told  by  the  distinguished    President  whose 
administration  has    just  come  to  a  close.      Remarkable  as  that 
administration  would  under  any  circumstances  have  been,  it  has 
been  rendered  more  remarkable  by  the  unique  combination   of 
events  which  coupled  the  accession  of  Dr.  McCosh  to  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  College,  with  an  outflow  of  beneficence  which  has 
made  possible  the  realization  of  the  comprehensive  scheme  which 
he  projected  in  his  own  inaugural  address.      During  these  years 
Dr.  McCosh  has  been  known  not  only  as  the  wise  and  energetic 
administrator  of  the  affairs  of  Princeton,  but  as  an  active  force  in 
the  educational  system   of  the  land.      Speaking  now  only  of  his 
services  to  this  institution,  it  is  simple  truth  to  say  that  he  has 
enlarcred    its    curriculum,    elevated   its    standard    of    instruction, 
increased  its  material  resources,  and  doubled  the  number  of  its 
students.      He  has  given  Princeton  a  proud  position  as  the  home 
of  Philosoph}^  and  at  the  same  time  has  enriched  our  literature 
with  contributions  to  mental  science  which  have  spread  far  and 
wide  the  fame  of  this  seat  of  learning,  and  vindicated  for  it  afresh 
the  place  it  has  always  held  as  a  defender  of  the  faith.      He  has 
good  reason  for  satisfaction  as  he    reviews  the  work   of    these 
twenty  years;  and  we  shall  all  concede  that  he  has  earned  the  rest 
from  official  responsibility  which  the  transfer  of  office  just  effected 
will  secure  him.      We  congratulate  ourselves  upon  the  fact  that 
he  is  still  with  us,  and  that,  as  his  inclination  may  lead  him   or 
his  strength  shall  allow,  he  will  still  take  an  active  part  in  the 
instructions  of  that  department  of  which  he  has  so  long  been  the 
distinguished  head.     We  are  in  no  danger  of  forgetting  him.     We 
shall  never  cease  to  reverence  him;  and  I  at  least  shall  claim  from 
time  to  time  the  privilege  of  his  advice  and  the  benefit  of  his 


i6 

experience.  I  express  the  feelings  of  all  who  are  here  to-day, 
and  of  thousands  all  over  the  land,  in  hoping  that  he  may  have  a 
serene  old  age,  and  that  he  may  live  to  see  the  carrying  out  in 
other  hands  of  plans  which  he  himself  had  formed,  and  the 
completion  under  the  direction  of  another  builder  of  that  Univer- 
sity-structure that  has  these  years  past  had  ideal  existence  in  his 
own  mind. 

It  has,  I  confess,  the  appearance  of  hardihood  for  me  to 
consent,  conscious  as  I  am  of  my  own  inadequacy  for  the  task,  to 
be  Dr.  McCosh's  successor;  and,  as  some  of  you  know,  I  hesitated 
for  some  time  before  I  felt  ready  to  cross  the  threshold  of  the 
door  which  was  held  open  to  me  in  my  election  with  such 
generous  and  inviting  welcome.  For  I  knew  my  own  limitations, 
and  I  could  not  but  know  that  they  would  be  accentuated  by 
being  placed  in  direct  antithesis  to  the  shining  qualities  of  my 
predecessor.  I  could  not  hope  that  my  coming  into  the  Presi- 
dency would  mark  a  new  era  of  munificence,  though  it  is  true 
that  history  sometimes  repeats  itself;  and  yet  I  knew  that,  whether 
this  were  so  or  not,  the  friends  of  the  College  would  look  for  a 
period  of  development  and  growth.  If,  however,  this  expectation 
of  growth  was  enough  to  make  me  hesitate  to  accept  the  invita- 
tion to  be  the  head  of  this  College,  a  desire  for  arrested  erowth 
or  a  willingness  to  remain  in  a  condition  of  contented  stagnation 
would  have  made  me  prompt  to  decline  it.  It  would  be  com- 
paratively easy,  I  suppose;  to  administer  the  affairs  of  this 
institution  if  we  were  willing  to  occupy  a  somewhat  humble  place 
in  the  sisterhood  of  American  Universities.  With  our  buildings, 
our  endowments,  and  our  somewhat  assured  position  no  very 
great  effort  would  be  needed  to  keep  a  certain  hold  upon  the 
community.  But  I  do  not  enter  upon  this  work  because  I  am 
looking  for  an  easy  place.  I  believe  that  Princeton  is  only  at 
the  beginning  of  her  career,  and  that  her  future  will  as  far  tran- 
scend her  present  as  her  present  transcends  her  past.  It  is  at  all 
events  under  the  inspiration  of  this  hope  that  I  enter  upon  my 
work  to-day.  I  thank  the  Trustees  for  the  cordial  unanimity  with 
which  they  have  expressed  their  desire  to  have  me  here;   I  thank 


17 

my  colleagues  in  the  Faculty  for  the  heartiness  with  which  they 
welcome  one  of  their  own  number  to  this  honorable  position;  I 
need  and  I  am  sure  that  I  shall  seek  the  co-operation  of  both  the 
Trustees  and  the  Faculty  in  the  discharge  of  my 'duties;  and 
while  it  is  quite  possible  that  I  may  not  meet  their  expectations 
of  .efficiency,  I  think  that  they  will  have  no  occasion  to  complain 
of  my  lack  of  devotion  to  Princeton  College.  From  this  moment 
onward  I  shall  strive  with  heart  and  mind  to  promote  the  interests 
of  this  institution;  and  may  God  give  me  strength  to  do  for  Him 
the  work  that  my  hands  find  to  do. 

It  would  be  natural  for  me  to  be  interested  in  the  growth  of 
the  College  were  it  only  through  the  zeal  which  the  existence  of 
competing  interests  is  so  apt  to  enkindle.  But  I  think  we  should 
appeal  to  far  higher  motives  than  this  in  our  desire  to  promote 
the  ofrowth  of  this  institution.  Indeed,  I  begfin  to  fear  that  we 
mav  fall  into  a  state  of  mind  toward  our  sister  colleQ^es  which 
may  prevent  us  from  doing  full  justice  to  the  good  work  which 
they  are  doing  and  may  lead  us  to  forget  the  common  work  in 
which  we  are  engaged.  To  a  certain  extent  we  cannot  help  being 
affected  by  the  habits  of  the  business  world;  but  I  am  nevertheless 
profoundly  of  the  opinion  expressed  by  Professor  Laurie  that 
"pure  devotion  to  science  and  philosophy  is  utterly  incompatible 
with  the  mental  disturbance  and  degradation  involved  in  academic 
shopkeeping."  It  is  because  our  educational  institutions  are 
making  permanent  contributions  to  our  American  civilization  that 
they  are  worthy  of  the  best  efforts  of  those  who  are  engaged  in 
their  managfement;  and  it  is  because  we  think  that  Princeton  has 
an  important  and  a  special  contribution  to  make  to  that  civilization 
that  we  can  heartily  wish  for  her  advancement.  Local  pride,  the 
interest  we  all  feel  in  our  own,  and  the  desire  to  hold  our  own  in 
the  race  for  academic  pre-eminence  may  very  properly  act  as 
subordinate  motives;  but  they  are  not  enough  to  give  strength  to 
sustained  endeavor.  We  must  show,  if  we  would  make  good  our 
claim  to  the  growing  confidence  of  the  public,  that  we  are  doing 
a  special  work  for  the  world. 

The  relation  of  the  University  to  the  problem  of  the  world's 


i8 

improvement  is  itself  a  large  question,  and  one  that  might  well 
claim  consideration  if  time  allowed.  That  totality  of  effects  in  the 
progress  of  human  life  which  we  call  civilization  may  be  viewed 
both  as  cause  and  effect  in  respect  to  the  higher  education.  There 
is  a  civilization  before  there  is  an  organized  effort  to  advance  it: 
man  improves  himself  before  he  begins  to  to  think  that  he  ought 
to  improve  himself.  Blindly_,  and  as  if  by  instinct,  toward  ideals 
that  are  not  consciously  placed  before  him,  and  through  a  force 
that  can  be  likened  only  to  inspiration,  he  moves  on  and  up.  He 
thinks  and  reasons,  interrogates  himself  and  interprets  the  world 
long  before  he  raises  questions  respecting  a prwr z  knowledge:,  and 
the  intelligibility  of  the  universe,  or  realizes  that  the  answers  to 
these  questions  determine  the  possibility  of  science.  Grammar 
exists  before  cjrammarians;  logfic  before  losficians  construct  mood 
and  figure;  and  civilization  takes  a  long  step  before  it  becomes  con- 
scious of  itself,  and  begins  to  plan  for  its  own  advancement. 
When  however  it  reaches  this  latter  stage  it  invents  appliances  to 
promote  its  own  growth.  It  organizes  with  more  care  the  insti- 
tutions of  society,  and  helps  Nature  to  give  birth  to  higher  forms 
of  life  and  thought  by  establishing  the  School  and  the  University. 
Hence  it  is  that  the  University  serves  at  first  to  garner  and  to 
crystallize  results  that  have  been  already  attained.  We  can  en- 
large upon  the  trivizun  and  qiiadrivium  of  mediaeval  learning  only 
as  in  the  slow  processes  of  evolution  new  sciences  are  born  and 
new  departments  accepted' as  solid  additions  to  knowledge.  The 
University  itself  is  sometimes  the  birth-place  of  these  new  sciences, 
but  not  always.  We  can  make  no  contract  with  nature  to  secure 
a  monopoly  of  genius  to  the  guilds  of  learning.  Franklin  and 
Faraday  were  not  academic  men.  Leibnitz,  Des  Cartes  and 
Locke  did  not  write  in  the  service  of  universities.  Mill  and 
Spencer  have  spoken  to  a  wider  public  than  college  classes. 
Equip  your  university  as  you  may,  the  extra-mural  teacher  will 
always  have  a  place  among  the  factors  in  our  intellectual  growth. 
It  may  be  said  in  fact  that  the  university  is  not  the  mother  but 
the  foster-mother  of  culture.  If  however  it  conserves  it  also 
promotes  civilization.     A  college  is  not  simply  a  place  for  pedants 


19 

and  grammarians;  it  is  a  place  where  the  ideas  that  rule  the 
M^orld  find  expression.  No  one  knew  this  better  than  Hobbes 
who  found  in  the  teaching  of  the  universities  the  strongest  barriers 
against  the  success  of  his  own  philosophy,  and  nowhere  than  in  his 
Leviathan  do  we  accordingly  find  fuller  appreciation  of  the  influ- 
ence of  the  university  upon  the  thought  and  action  of  a  people. 
It  is  on  account  of  this  influence  that  our  educational  institutions 
deserve  the  consideration  of  those  who  value  the  world's  welfare. 
For  if  our  real  wealth  consists  not  in  our  corn  and  wheat,  not  in 
our  coal-mines  and  railroads,  not  in  our  expensive  houses  and 
luxurious  modes  of  locomotion,  not  in  our  immunity  from  toil, 
and  the  possession  of  abundant  means  of  gratifying  desire, — 
but  in  refined  manners,  high  morals,  devout  life,  cultivated 
powers,  and  wide  knowledge  of  men  and  things:  then,  behind  the 
agents  who  make  and  who  execute  the  laws,  behind  the  people 
who  vote  and  the  machiner)'  by  which  the  popular  will  is  expressed, 
and  back  of  the  avenues  of  trade  along  which  material  wealth 
rolls  up  to  our  doors, — we  may  well  place  as  having  first  import- 
ance the  institutions  that  represent  the  best  type  of  moral  and 
intellectual  culture;  the  institutions  that  by  their  very  genius 
and  constitution  stand  for  and  illustrate  the  best  elements  of 
living.  The  university  is  intended  to  be  the  home  of  culture, 
an  intellectual  retreat,  a  place  where  learning  keeps  state,  and 
where  men  are  interested,  as  Arnold  says,  "in  things  of  mind." 
It  is  a  matter  of  no  small  moment  to  us  as  a  nation  to  have 
here  and  there  a  place  that  in  a  measure  at  least  can  give  tone 
to  thought,  a  place  where  conscience  is  quickened  and  taste 
refined,  a  place  where  men  not  only  admire  but  learn  also,  as 
Ste.  Beuve  says,_  "why  it  is  right  to  admire;"  a  place  remote 
at  least  in  sympathy  from  the  exciting  influences  of  trade,  where 
the  bull-fights  and  bear-fights  of  commercial  speculation  are  un- 
known, and  where  the  even  tenor  of  academic  life  is  broken  only 
when  some  unlucky  investor  wakes  to  find  that  his  railroad  has 
passed  its  dividend  or  defaulted  on  its  bonds.  It  is  easy  of  course 
for  the  university  to  fall  short  of  doing  its  full  duty.  Learned 
leisure  may  become  learned  indolence,  but  the  university  is  meant 


20 

to  be  a  place  of  endowed  research.  It  is  a  hive  as  well  as  a  home. 
We  have  not  yet  reached  the  full  stage  of  productive  activity  that 
is  desirable  in  this  land  because  our  professors  as  a  rule  are  over- 
worked in  the  class-room.  We  have  not  fully  learned  the  difference 
between  a  professor  and  a  paedagogue,  and  that  while  the  one  may 
hear  lessons,  the  other  should  inspire  with  the  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge, and  speak  with  authority.  But  we  are  coming  to  this 
position.  We  are  finding  that  the  professor  who  has  ceased  to 
learn  is  unfit  to  teach,  and  that  the  man  who  sees  nothing  before 
him  to  kindle  his  own  enthusiasm  will  chill  the  little  enthusiasm 
the  student  may  carry  into  his  lecture-room.  There  is  no 
necessary  antagonism  between  a  man's  work  as  a  teacher  and  his 
work  as  an  investigator.  It  is  the  man  who  is  making  contribu- 
tions to  his  department  whom  the  students  wish  to  hear.  None 
know  this  better  than  Princeton  men  who  remember  Professor 
Henry  as  the  prince  of  teachers,  and  who  at  the  same  time  know 
that  he  was  the  father  of  telegraphy,  and  that  it  is  his  genius 
that  has  enabled  us  to  whisper  round  the  world. 

Add  now  to  the  civilizinor  influence  that  comes  throueh  the 
simple  presence  of  a  body  of  learned  men  in  the  different  educa- 
tional centres  or  that  is  exerted  by  these  men  in  published  writings, 
the  influence  which  they  exert  upon  their  pupils  who  take  their 
teachings  with  them  into  the  various  callings  of  life  and  reproduce 
or  modify  them,  in  the  pulpit,  on  the  platform,  or  through  the 
press:  remember  that  the  thought  of  the  world  rules  the  world, 
and  that  the  best  thought  ought  to  rule  it:  remember  too  that  true 
views  of  civilization,  of  the  functions  of  government,  and  the  basis 
of  law;  true  answers  to  the  question,  how  to  live  and  what  to  live 
for;  high  ideals  of  the  fit,  the  becoming,  the  beautiful,  and  the 
good,  are  the  pillars  of  national  stability, — and  we  shall  see  the 
importance  from  a  national  point  of  view  not  only  or  even  chiefly 
of  having  our  universities  well-equipped  but  of  having  them  built 
upon  the  right  foundations.  To  be  identified  with  the  life  of  one 
of  these  institutions  and  so  to  have  a  hand  upon  the  lever  that 
uplifts  the  world  is  a  matter  of  great  privilege.  I  say  this  not 
only  with  respect  to  professors  but  with  respect  to  the  founders  and 


21 

benefactors  of  these  institutions.  And  here  by  the  way  we  are 
reminded  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  factors  of  the  new-world 
civilization.  The  old-world  universities  are  State  institutions  or 
they  rest  upon  monastic  foundations,  or  have  grown  up  in  obedi- 
ence to  royal  mandates.  The  great  colleges  of  America  are  for 
the  most  part  the  fruit  of  private  beneficence.  I  need  not  speak 
of  those  to  whom  we  are  indebted  here.  Their  names  are  house- 
hold words  and  we  hold  them  in  grateful  remembrance.  It  is  in 
the  princely  munificence  of  these  men  and  of  men  like  them  con- 
nected with  other  universities,  that  we  see  some  of  the  highest 
achievements  of  American  civilization.  This  is  true  even  in  those 
cases  where  we  may  question  the  wisdom  that  directs  the  benefac- 
tions. There  are  cases  where  that  wisdom  may  be  questioned.  A 
man  with  a  million  is  not  likely  to  be  casting  about  for  an  adviser — 
and  yet  his  will  may  be  misdirected.  It  has  occurred  to  many 
that  more  good  would  be  done — leaving  out  of  sight  of  course 
the  special  claims  of  new  regions  of  country — if  men  would  give 
to  institutions  already  established  rather  than  create  new  ones. 
A  million  dollars  would  make  a  very  meagre  university,  but  half 
a  million  would  double  the  efficiency  of  one  already  established. 
To  be  sure  a  man  who  builds  his  university  from  the  foundation 
is  free  from  some  embarrassing  questions;  just  as  a  man  who  has 
no  relations  is  sure  to  have  no  poor  relations.  But  it  is  a  pity  not 
to  see  that  a  great  past  is  a  priceless  thing.  Mr.  White  has 
recently  sketched  for  us  the  outline  of  the  next  American  Uni- 
versity. It  may  be  that  he  is  correct  and  that  I  am  not  a  disin- 
terested judge,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  the  question  now  is  not 
so  much  what  the  next  university  shall  be  as  how  the  existing 
universities  shall  be  strengthened.  And  whether  Mr.  White  be 
right  or  wrong  in  his  conception  of  the  ideal  American  University, 
we  know  that  Princeton  University  must  conform  to  the  genius  of 
her  history  and  grow  along  the  lines  that  have  been  determined 
by  her  past.  Measured  by  the  years  of  our  sister  University  of 
Bologna,  that  has  just  celebrated  her  Sooth  anniversary,  we  are 
not  old.  We  remember  that  Oxford  and  Cambridge  date  from 
the  1 2th  century,  that  St.  Andrews  was  founded  in  141 1,  that  it 


/ 


22 

is  300  years  since  RoUock  presided  over  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh, and  that  it  becomes  us  to  take  a  modest  place  beside  our  fair 
American  sister  who  celebrated  her  own  250th  anniversary  only 
eiofhteen  months  aeo.  But  after  all  aQ;-e  is  a  relative  thins;-.  And 
when  a  national  institution  antedates  the  national  life  it  has  a 
fair  claim  to  consideration  on  the  ground  of  age.  We  have  a 
royal  charter:  we  had  a  colonial  history:  the  sign-manual  of 
Princeton's  President  is  on  America's  MaQ^na  Charta:  and  a 
Princeton  graduate  helped  to  make  America's  Constitution.  By 
burninof  w^ord  and  battle-scar  our  collesfe  has  won  the  rioht  to  be 
heard  through  all  the  years  to  come  in  all  that  afTects  the  highest 
interests  of  Church  and  State.  Independent  of  both,  she  has  been 
true  to  both;  and  she  will  be  false  to  her  founders  and  deserve 
to  be  deserted  by  her  friends  whenever  she  parts  with  her  patri- 
otism or  her  piety.  I  lay  emphasis  upon  both:  love  of  country 
and  love  of  God,  were  prominent  characteristics  of  the  men  who 
laid  the  foundations  of  this  institution;  and  I  feel  to-day  that  in 
both  regards  the  labors  of  men  like  Davies  and  Witherspoon  have 
left  a  heritage  of  obligation  to  me  as  I  take  my  place  in  this 
o-reat  succession. 

But  as  in  my  opinion  true  patriotism  consists  not  so  much 
in  glorying  in  the  victories  over  a  misguided  foe  as  in  seeking  to 
foster  the  virtues  that  underlie  national  stability,  so  I  believe 
that  true  piety  is  fostered  not  so  much  by  a  frequent  repetition  of 
religious  formulas  as  by  a  robust  avowal  of  our  Christian  faith 
and  a  manly  vindication  of  it  as  a  reasonable  thing.  We  do  not 
mean  to  extinguish  the  torch  of  science  that  we  may  sit  in  religious 
moonlight,  and  we  do  not  intend  to  send  our  religion  up  to  the 
biological  laboratory  for  examination  and  approval.  We  shall 
not  be  afraid  to  open  our  eyes  in  the  presence  of  Nature,  nor 
ashamed  to  close  them  in  the  presence  of  God.  And  here  the 
truth  of  history  requires  me  to  say  that  it  is  only  in  a  qualified 
sense  that  the  Log  College  can  be  called  the  mother  of  Princeton 
University.  The  Log  College,  like  the  College  of  New  Jersey, 
had  its  origin  in  the  noble  desire  of  devout  and  God-fearing  men 
to  promote  Christian  education,  and  while  it  is  proper  in  view 


23 

of  all  the  facts,  as  Dr.  Alexander  shows,  to  speak  of  the  Log 
College  as  the  germ  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  it  must  also 
be  remembered  that  the  latter  had  an  independent  beginning,  and 
that  while  the  Log  College  was  meant  to  meet  the  religious 
exigencies  of  the  time  by  making  a  shorter  road  into  the  Christian 
ministry,  the  College  of  New  Jersey  was  from  the  beginning  in 
the  intentions  of  its  founders  a  seat  of  learning.  The  conditions 
under  which  Princeton  has  grown  to  its  present  position  must  be 
the  law  of  its  future  development.  Said  President  Green:  "  It 
is  hoped  that  the  guardians  of  Nassau  Hall  will  forever  keep  in 
mind,  that  the  design  of  Its  foundation  would  be  perverted  If 
rello-Ion  should  ever  be  cultivated  In  It  to  the  neoflect  of  science;  or 
science  to  the  neglect  of  religion;  if  on  the  one  hand  It  should  be 
converted  into  a  religious  house  like  a  monastery  or  Theological 
Seminary  In  which  religious  instruction  should  claim  almost 
exclusively  the  attention  of  every  pupil:  or  upon  the  other  hand 
should  become  an  establishment  in  which  science  should  be  taught 
how  perfectly  soever,  without  connecting  with  It  and  constantly 
endeavoring  to  inculcate  the  principles  and  practice  of  piety. 
Whatever  other  institutions  may  exist  or  arise  In  our  country  in 
which  religion  and  science  may  be  separated  from  each  other  by 
their  instructors  or  governors,  this  Institution  without  a  gross 
perversion  of  Its  original  design  can  never  be  one."  These 
words  I  make  my  own  to-day,  and,  so  help  me  God,  during  the 
time  of  my  administration,  Princeton  shall  keep  faith  with  the 
dead. 

If,  then,  we  are  seeking  to  comprehend  our  position  among 
the  higher  institutions  of  learning  in  our  land,  we  must  keep  our 
history  In  view.  It  Is  well  known  that,  in  the  judgment  of  many, 
the  time  has  come  for  Princeton  College  to  assume  the  name  and  ^ 
style  of  a  University.  The  exigencies  of  the  hour,  therefore, 
require  me  to  ask  what  a  university  is,  and  what  kind  of  a  univer- 
sity Princeton  Is  to  be?  It  is  not  as  easy  as  some  suppose  to 
to  distinguish  the  college  from  the  university  by  sharp  boundary 
lines.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  college  and  university  In  America 
correspond  to  gymnasium   and  university  in   Germany,   for  the 


24 

German  gymnasium  is  not  exactly  the  same  as  the  American 
college,  and  the  German  university  is  only  one  of  several  forms 
of  university  organization.  It  would  be  easy  to  theorize  with 
respect  to  what  the  American  university  ought  to  be;  or  If  the 
American  university  were  defined  by  State  or  Federal  laws  and 
were  possessed  of  definitely  recognized  privileges  and  charter 
rights  that  distinguish  it  from  a  college,  we  might  say  what  the 
American  university  actually  Is.  When,  however,  in  the  absence 
of  material  for  determining  what  the  American  university  is,  we 
ask  the  more  general  question  regarding  the  marks  of  a  university, 
we  must  fall  back  upon  the  historical  usage  of  the  word  as  Illus- 
trated in  the  recos^nized  universities  of  the  world.  That  usao^e 
shows  that  some  of  the  prevailing  views  upon  this  question  are 
erroneous.  It  Is  said,  for  instance,  that  a  university  is  an  institu- 
tion consisting  of  the  four  Faculties — Arts,  Law,  Medicine  and 
Theology,  and  I  confess  a  certain  regard  for  this  traditional  Idea, 
thouo^h  I  see  that  there  is  no  log-Ic  of  exclusion  that  should  limit 
the  learned  professions  to  three,  or  prevent  us  from  giving 
university  status  to  other  callings.  But  I  deny  that  it  is  of  the 
essence  of  a  university  to  have  four  Faculties,  or  even  a  plurality 
of  Faculties.  There  was  a  university  at  Salerno  with  only  a 
Faculty  of  Medicine;  Bologna  was  a  university  when  it  gave 
instruction  only  in  Law;  Paris  had  a  university  that  consisted  of  a 
Faculty  of  Theology.  If,  then,  a  university  may  consist  of  one 
Faculty,  and  of  that  history  leaves  us  no  room  to  doubt,  It  may 
certainly  consist  of  that  Faculty  which,  according  to  Du  Bois 
Reymond,  is  the  centre  of  the  university  system,  and  which  more 
than  any  other  Is  concerned  with  pure  science  and  Is  least  burdened 
with  utilitarian  conditions.  If  a  Faculty  of  Medicine  may  be  a 
university,  a  Faculty  of  Philosophy  may  surely  be  one.  And  what 
is  a  well  equipped  college  like  this  but  a  Faculty  of  Philosophy? 
It  Is  thought  by  some,  however,  that  it  is  of  the  essence  of  a 
university  that  the  Faculty  of  Arts  should  offer  a  wide  range  of 
studies  and  that  the  students  should  be  free  in  selecting  them. 
But  inasmuch  as  no  university  professes  to  teach  the  omne  scibile, 
and  as  no  one  has  said  how  closely  an  Institution  must  approximate 


25 

that  before  arrogating  to  itself  the  name  of  a  university,  it  may 
be  fairly  said  that  an  institution  with  say  forty  professors  in  the 
Faculty  of  Arts,  has  some  claim  to  the  title.  The  freedom  of  the 
students,  however,  is  only  a  relative  freedom  after  all,  for  since 
no  institution  has  yet  gone  so  far  as  to  give  its  degree  to  students 
without  imposing  some  conditions,  either  of  residence  or  exami- 
nation, and  as  to  the  latter  of  the  kind  and  number  of  subjects 
professed,  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  freedom  of  the  student  is  an 
article  of  the  standing  or  falling  university.  It  is  further  said 
that  the  university  is  to  be  regarded  merely  as  an  examining  and 
degree-granting  body,  in  some  cases  having  one  or  more  colleges 
affiliated  with  it.  This  is  the  prevailing  view  in  England,  the  idea 
growing  perhaps  out  of  the  relation  of  the  University  of  Oxford  to 
its  colleges,  though  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  University  antedated 
the  colleges.  The  new  Victoria  University,  with  its  affiliated 
colleges  of  Manchester  and  Liverpool,  is  based  upon  this  idea, 
and  so  is  that  of  London.  This  scheme  accomplishes  several 
good  purposes.  It  limits  the  number  of  degree-granting  bodies, — 
a  very  good  thing  to  do — secures  a  high  type  of  impartial  exam- 
iners, and  makes  it  possible  to  give  the  same  university  rank  to 
several  contiguous  institutions  without  in  any  way  interfering  with 
their  separate  autonomies.  But  as  Mr.  Lyte  says  in  his  History 
of  Oxford  University,  speaking  of  this  and  a  previously  given 
definition,  "  Neither  will  stand  the  test  of  history,  for  there  have 
been  great  and  learned  universities  neither  professing  to  impart 
universal  knowledge  nor  boasting  a  single  affiliated  college." 
Omit  the  scheme  of  affiliated  colleges  from  the  last  named  con- 
ception  of  the  university  and  we  have  an  approximation  to  the 
University  of  France,  which  was,  perhaps,  in  the  mind  of  Mr. 
White  when  he  pictured  for  the  readers  of  The  Foricm  the  next 
University  of  America.  Once  more  it  is  thought  that  the  function 
of  the  university  is  to  promote  original  research  and  be  the  resort 
of  specialists.  This  is  the  basis  of  the  German  University,  and 
the  nearest  approach  to  it  in  this  country  is  the  Johns  Hopkins. 
This  idea  was  apparently  in  the  mind  of  Bacon,  as  Professor 
Laurie  reminds  us,  and  the  realization  of  it  is,  in  the  judgment  of 


26 

Professor  Ladd,  to  constitute  the  American  University  of  the 
future.  There  is  place,  of  course,  for  such  a  university,  but  unless 
we  are  ready  to  follow  Mr.  Arnold  and  call  Oxford  a  high  school, 
or  Mr.  Ladd  in  disparaging  the  Scotch  Universities,  as  I  do  not 
feel  disposed  to  do,  we  must  conclude  that  the  gemts  University 
exists  under  several  species.  There  are  no  principles  of  induction 
known  to  me  that  will  justify  us  in  taking  any  one  of  these  as  the 
type  of  the  real  university.  History  seems  to  teach  us  that  we 
may  use  this  word  with  a  great  deal  of  liberty,  and  until  legislation 
has  defined  its  use  and  limited  its  application,  we  may  expect  to 
hear  of  institutions  that  use  this  trade-mark  without  rising  to  our 
standard  of  what  a  university  ought  to  be.  Professor  Laurie 
gives  us  three  "notes"  of  a  university,  and  I  am  willing  to  take 
them  on  his  authority,  partly  because  they  give  me  the  opportunity 
to  say  that  however  the  question  regarding  a  change  of  title  may 
be  settled — and  on  that  subject  I  have  no  opinion  to  express — 
Princeton  is  already  a  university,  if  there  ever  was  a  university 
in  the  world;  and  partly  also  because  these  three  notes  of  a  uni- 
versity will  furnish  the  basis  for  a  word  or  two  regarding  the 
management  of  Princeton  College  that  may  not  be  out  of  place 
on  this  occasion.  The  three  notes  of  a  university  referred  to 
are  sttidiinn  generale,  Freedom  and  Autonomy.  The  stiidhnn 
gcncralc  has  a  double  reference,  being  intended  to  mean  both  a 
place  of  general  resort  for  students,  and  a  place  where  liberal 
studies  are  pursued.  The  stzidmni  generale  was  not  a  monks' 
school  designed  to  fit  men  for  the  priesthood,  but  a  school 
intended  for  all  who  choose  to  frequent  it.  Realize  the  non- 
ecclesiastical  character  of  the  university,  and  its  other  attributes 
follow  by  logical  consequence. 

The  founders  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey  organized  it 
upon  this  university  basis.  They  were  religious  men;  they  were 
Presbyterians;  but  with  a  breadth  of  view  not  surprising  when 
we  remember  who  they  were,  they  planted  the  institution  on  a 
broad  basis  of  a  studium  generale.  Says  the  late  President  Mac- 
lean: "Either  the  superior  judgment  of  those  concerned  in  the 
foundation  of  our  college  or  their  great  liberality  of  sentiment. 


27 

or  else  the  circumstances  of  their  position,  perhaps  all  combined, 
led  them  to  adopt  the  very  best  plan  possible  for  the  right  found- 
ing and  right  ordering  of  such  an  institution.  They  made  it 
neither  a  State  college  nor  a  Church  college,  but  committed  it 
to  the  oversight  and  care  of  a  select  number  of  the  very  best 
men  interested  in  their  enterprise  and  who  had  the  confidence 
and  respect  of  the  whole  community,  being  leading-  men  in  both 
Church  and  State."  They  planned  their  college  for  liberal  cul- 
ture. Their  charter  imposes  no  religious  tests  upon  professors, 
and  it  expressly  provides  that  none  shall  be  imposed  upon  the 
students.  The  founders  of  the  college  planned,  therefore,  for 
academic  freedom,  which  is  also  a  note  of  the  university.  Organ- 
ize an  institution,  not  as  a  propaganda,  but  as  a  seat  of  learning; 
make  your  professors  servants  of  Truth  and  your  students  seekers 
of  it,  and  freedom  is  the  necessary  result.  The  scientific  man  will 
ask,  what  say  the  facts,  not  what  says  the  creed.  The  student 
of  politics  will  ask,  what  is  best,  not  what  the  platform  is.  He 
may  not  vote  with  Gladstone  or  Salisbury.  He  may  be  neither  a 
Democrat  nor  a  Republican.  He  may  glory  in  his  independence 
and  be  reactionary  or  revolutionar)%  or  he  may  represent  the 
resolution  of  forces  in  the  compromising  diagonal,  bear  the  oppro- 
brium of  an  ill-sounding  designation,  but  feel  sure,  nevertheless, 
that  the  "Mugwump"  has  his  reward:  he  is  free.  He  may  abuse 
his  freedom,  and  glory  rather  in  his  emancipation  than  in  the 
advantage  that  emancipation  brings  him,  and  stand  opposed  to 
the  old  order  of  thino^s  for  the  sake  of  showing  that  he  is  free. 
This  is  freedom  with  some  of  freedom's  excesses.  We  hear  much 
just  now  of  university  freedom.  Kant  advocated  it  a  hundred 
years  ago,  and  Helmholtz  sounded  its  praises  in  1877.  I  believe 
in  freedom,  but  in  concrete  experience  we  must  take  note  of  the 
qualifications  of  freedom.  The  genius  of  the  university  is  free- 
dom, but  the  genius  of  such  a  university  as  this  is  a  qualified 
freedom.  The  trustees  have  responsibilities;  so  have  the  pro- 
fessors. These  limit  freedom.  We  have  no  scientific  confession 
of  faith,  but  we  would  not  let  a  Communist  teach  political  econ- 
omy, nor  Mr.  Jasper  astronomy;  we  would   not  give  academic 


28 

standing  to  the  "Substantial  Philosophy"  of  Mr.  Wilford  Hall, 
nor  permit  one  of  the  Flat-Land  people  to  instruct  in  physical 
geography;  we  would  not  allow  Mr.  Sinnett  to  teach  Esoteric 
Buddhism,  or  entertain  a  class  with  Madam  Blavatsky's  vagaries, 
because  we  believe  in  the  freedom  of  philosophizing.  We  should 
also  close  our  doors  to  the  crude  idealism  professed  by  the  so- 
called  Christian  scientists  and  the  metaphysical  healers.  It  is  no 
part  of  university  freedom  to  shelter  nonsense  or  give  learned 
leisure  to  the  charlatan.  Nor  is  it  part  of  university  freedom 
to  open  the  halls  of  science  and  philosophy  to  men  who  teach 
atheism  or  belittle  the  Christian  faith.  I  am  not  sure  that  I 
should  commit  myself  to  all  the  propositions  in  Virchow's  famous 
"  Ignorabimus"  speech,  though  I  am  in  sympathy  with  its  main 
ideas;  and  I  have  no  difficulty  in  saying  that  on  the  general 
question  under  discussion  I  stand  with  him  rather  than  Haeckel, 
his  great  antagonist.  Limitations  may  be  similarly  shown  to 
exist  with  reo^ard  to  the  students'  freedom.  A  wise  man  recoe- 
nizes  the  difference  between  adolescence  and  infancy.  A  wise 
man  knows  better  than  to  treat  a  grown  man  like  a  child.  What 
laws  we  need  in  college  will  depend  on  circumstances.  Put  your 
university  in  a  city  having  no  students  in  residence  and  the 
municipal  authorities  will  take  care  of  the  discipline.  Put  five 
hundred  men  in  residence  and  regulations  become  necessary. 
What  regulations  are  necessary  is  a  matter  of  time,  place  and 
circumstances.  Self-government  is  ideal  government.  Spontan- 
eous obedience  to  a  self-imposed  law  that  supersedes  law  imposed 
by  another  is  ideal  life.  I  fear  it  will  take  at  least  another 
administration  to  bring  the  Princeton  undergraduate  up  to  that 
standard. 

Autonomy,  not  of  the  individual,  however,  but  of  the  institu- 
tion, is  the  third  note  of  a  university.  The  mediaeval  University 
was  a  guild  of  learning.  Its  autonomy  and  its  privileges  went 
together.  It  could  hold  property,  manage  its  own  affairs,  and 
punish  its  members.  It  possessed  valuable  franchises.  It  was 
supreme  in  its  region.  They  were  protectionists  in  those  mediaeval 
days;  but  they  were  also  fair.     They  would  not  have  thought  it 


29 

right  to  give  letters  patent  to  the  inventor  of  a  lamp-chimney 
and  let  the  poor  scholar  burn  his  midnight  oil  for  the  sole  bene- 
fit of  thankless  and  unremunerating  publishers.  No  university 
could  sell  learning  without  a  charter.  And  when  we  add  the 
social  consideration  that  the  University  had,  and  the  political 
power  that  it  afterwards  came  to  have,  we  can  see  that  it  was  a 
great  matter  for  it  to  have  its  privileges  and  its  autonomy  to- 
gether. We  have  autonomy  without  the  privileges.  There  is 
little  in  common  between  our  autonomy  and  that  of  the  mediaeval 
University,  except  the  independence  of  Church  and  State.  A 
university  ought  not  to  be  bound  by  party  politics  or  sectarian 
Theology.  A  Theological  Seminary,  however,  though  its  Pro- 
fessors are  eneased  in  the  highest  kind  of  university  work,  as  in 
the  case  of  our  own  Seminary  here  that  has  done  so  much  for 
Princeton's  world-wide  fame,  ought  to  be  under  the  supervision 
of  the  church  whose  theology  it  represents.  The  entire  distinct- 
ness as  to  end  and  oro^anization  of  the  two  orreat  institutions  that 
live  side  by  side  in  this  place  and  in  such  close  relations  is  mani- 
fest at  once.  And  now  the  question  arises  whether  the  autonomy 
of  the  College  might  not  be  modified  to  advantage.  Should  we 
not  seek  to  realize  a  literary  republic?  Should  we  not  seek  to  give 
form  to  the  solidarity  of  university  life  ?  Some  think  that  there 
is  too  orreat  a  barrier  between  Professors  and  Trustees;  others 
that  the  graduates  ought  to  have  their  interests  stimulated  through 
more  tangible  ideas  than  filial  piety  and  a  love  for  Alma  Mater. 
It  is  felt  by  some  that  college  administration  is  a  business  in 
which  Trustees  are  the  partners,  Professors  the  salesmen,  and 
Students  the  customers;  and  it  is  said  that  university  life  would 
take  a  great  step  forward  if  without  interference  with  existing 
relations,  many  of  which  cannot  be  changed,  there  might  never- 
theless be  a  common  ground  on  which  the  representatives  of  the 
different  interests  could  meet  for  consultation  and  action. 

These  are  questions  that  are  likely  to  be  presented  to  the 
consideration  of  universities  in  this  and  other  lands.  They  are 
questions  respecting  which  I  should  be  slow  to  speak  and  where 
1  shall  more  willingly  follow  than  attempt  to  lead.     And  yet  with- 


;o 


out  offense  I  trust  I  may  venture  to  exercise  the  academic  imagin- 
ation, and  picture  to  myself  the  state  of  things  that  may  perhaps 
exist  in  Princeton — sa)'  a  hundred  years  to  come — when  on  some 
ceremonial  occasion  like  the  present  a  University  Convocation 
shall  assemble.  The  University  Senate  is  in  session,  let  me  first 
suppose.  The  Trustees  of  Princeton  College  are  there,  and  repre- 
sentatives of  the  College  Faculty  are  members  of  it;  distinguished 
men  from  the  Faculty  of  Theology  add  the  weight  of  their  wise 
opinion;  the  Faculty  of  Law  has  a  representative;  and  represent- 
atives of  the  Alumni  speak  for  their  brother  graduates  all  around 
the  world.  It  is  an  august  body  composed  of  men  who  represent 
high  character,  practical  sagacity,  great  and  varied  learning, 
profound  thought,  high  position  and  refined  culture.  They  sit 
in  consultation  on  purely  academic  questions — the  granting  of 
degrees,  the  enlargement  of  the  curriculum,  or  the  importance  of 
establisliing  a  University  Professorship  in  Comparative  Religion, 
or  Christian  Archaeology,  or  the  Institutes  of  Public  Law.  And 
now  as  in  imagination  I  see  the  robed  procession  of  Senate, 
Faculties,  Fellows,  Graduates  and  Undergraduates  enter  the 
Commencement  Hall,  I  cannot  resist  the  feeling  that  we  have 
made  a  great  advance  in  our  academic  life;  that  we  have  put 
into  incarnate  form,  ideas  that  even  now  float  vaguely  in  the 
minds  of  some;  and  that  impressions  have  taken  organic  shape 
that  are  already  prevalent  across  the  sea,  regarding  Princeton 
University. 

It  is  however  a  more  practical  question  which  concerns  us 
now:  and  having  vindicated  our  title  to  university  rank,  I  trust 
you  will  bear  with  me  if  I  go  on  to  say  what  kind  of  University 
Princeton  ought  to  be.  I  believe  that  the  learning  acquired  at 
a  university  should  be  regarded  as  valuable  for  its  own  sake 
rather  than  for  the  sake  of  the  use  that  is  to  be  made  of  it. 
That  being  the  case  while  we  would  not  preclude  professional 
training  it  will  naturally  take  a  subordinate  place  in  our  plans, 
and  our  idea  regarding  the  aim  of  a  university  will  be  a  restraining 
influence  in  relation  to  the  development  of  schools  that  teach 
men  the  material  arts.      Much,  too,  that  often  passes  for  academic 


31 

instruction  may  be  ruled  out  as  having  no  disciplinary  value. 
Mere  information,  mere  lists  of  names  and  knowledge  of  inter- 
esting facts  is  not  education,  "Stuffing  birds,"  as  Newman  says, 
"and  playing  on  stringed  instruments  is  an  elegant  pastime  and 
a  resource  to  the  idle,  but  it  is  not  education;  it  does  not  form 
or  cultivate  the  intellect."  When  therefore  a  new  department  is 
proposed,  you  may  expect  me  to  require  its  advocates  to  show 
cause  why  it  should  not  be  excluded  on  the  ground  that  it  has  no 
disciplinary  value.  Moreover  the  general  training  of  men  for 
their  career  in  life  must  be  our  first  consideration.  Original 
research  is  a  luxury  for  the  few.  The  many  feel  about  it  as 
Locke  did  about  poetry,  "  'Tis  a  pleasant  land  but  a  barren  soil." 
Guided  then  by  the  principle  just  stated  we  may  study  the  prob- 
lem of  Princeton's  curriculum.  We  have  two  departments,  the 
academic  and  the  scientific.  In  the  latter  the  tendency  to  provide 
professional  education  has  found  expression  in  the  course  in  civil 
engineering,  and  I  should  favor  a  further  development  of  the 
professional  side  of  the  School  of  Science,  provided  always  it  be 
kept  in  mind  that  pure  science  with  a  practical  outlook,  rather 
than  practical  business  on  a  scientific  basis  is  our  plan  of  education. 
It  is,  however,  on  the  academic  side  of  the  College  that  the  main 
discussions  reofardinof  the  curriculum  are  Qfolnof  on  both  here  and 
elsewhere.  We  have  in  the  first  place  the  old  fashioned  college 
curriculum  of  four  years,  prescribed  throughout.  There  can  be 
no  question  of  the  high  quality  of  the  work  that  has  been  done 
in  the  past  and  that  many  colleges  are  still  doing  on  this  basis. 
It  gives  a  good  preparation  for  professional  and  specialized  study. 
But  it  does  not  do  justice  to  the  special  aptitudes  of  students  and 
it  necessarily  excludes  some  very  important  branches  of  study. 
Next  to  this  Is  the  plan  that  allows  the  student  to  choose  for 
himself  out  of  a  very  extended  curriculum  what  studies  he  will 
pursue.  With  the  best  students  this  may  possibly  produce  the 
best  results,  though  even  regarding  them  we  may  well  ask  with 
Mr.  Lowell  whether  it  is,  "indeed,  so  self-evident  a  proposition 
as  It  seems  to  many  that  'you  may'  Is  as  wholesome  a  lesson  as 
'you    must.'"     Once    more  it    is  said    that    the  College   course 


32 

should  be  regarded  as  equivalent  to  the  instruction  given  in  the 
German  Gymnasium  and  that  it  should  be  followed  by  three  or 
four  years  in  the  University.  This  would  practically  result  in 
a  blotting  out  of  the  Philosophical  Faculty  in  the  University,  or 
rather  there  would  be  room  for  only  one  or  two  Faculties  of  this 
sort — that  of  Johns  Hopkins,  for  example.  The  same  effect 
would  follow  if  the  standard  of  admission  to  college  were  raised 
so  that  men  should  matriculate  only  when  they  had  covered  the 
studies  included  in  the  Freshman  and  Sophomore  years.  They 
would  go  as  many  are  now  going  from  the  higher  academies 
directly  into  the  professional  schools.  This  by  the  way  is  some- 
thing that  should  be  considered  by  those  who  are  advocating  a 
higher  standard  of  matriculation.  A  fourth  plan  consists  in  keep- 
ing the  college  course  substantially  as  it  is,  modified  perhaps  by 
electives  in  the  Junior  and  Senior  years,  and  distinguishing  by 
the  name  of  University  work  the  studies  that  are  pushed  forward 
into  graduate  courses.  This  looks  to  me  too  much  like  building 
the  academic  structure  with  four  stories  and  an  attic,  and  putting 
the  University  in  the  attic.  It  accommodates,  to  be  sure,  the 
number  who  desire  to  pursue  the  higher  studies,  but  the  name 
is  too  hicr  for  the  sligfht  use  that  it  serves.  There  remains  then 
what  is  substantially  our  own  method  which,  it  seems  to  me,  is 
admirably  suited  to  the  particular  work  that  we  are  called  upon 
to  do.  According  to  this  scheme,  two  years  are  devoted  to  a 
prescribed  course  of  disciplinary  study.  The  two  remaining 
years  are  devoted  to  studies  partly  obligatory  and  partly  optional. 
There  will  be  a  tendency  undoubtedly  to  widen  the  area  of  elec- 
tives in  the  Junior  and  Senior  years,  which  however  restrained 
will  nevertheless  in  all  probability  make  necessary  some  change 
in  the  curriculum.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  scientific  professors 
can  do  their  best  work  with  those  who  wish  to  prosecute  scientific 
study  unless  some  of  the  elements  of  science  are  taught  in  the 
Freshman  and  Sophomore  years.  There  is  no  reason  why  Logic, 
being  a  purely  formal  science,  should  not,  at  least  so  far  as  the 
old  Aristotelian  logic  of  deduction  is  concerned,  be  taught  earlier 
in  the  course  leaving  the  higher  branches  of  the  study  involving 


metaphysical  inquiries  until  a  later  stage.  I  doubt  whether  we  can 
do  what  we  ought  to  do  in  Latin  and  Greek  until  we  distinguish 
in  the  first  years  of  study  between  pass  and  honor  work,  and 
allow  those  whose  aptitudes  are  for  the  humanities  opportunity 
for  a  more  exclusive  devotion  to  them  when  approaching  the  close 
of  the  college  curriculum.  For  I  believe  with  Mr.  Lowell  that 
"  Langruaofe  should  be  a  ladder  to  literature,  and  not  literature  a 
ladder  to  language."  I  would  not  have  less  philology,  but  more 
light  and  sweetness  in  the  study  of  the  classics.  Some  of  us  love 
our  Milton  though  we  do  not  read  him  in  the  way  that  Ruskin 
says  we  should,  and  cultivated  men  value  their  Latin  or  Greek 
as  the  basis  of  their  literary  culture  who  have  no  desire  to  be 
philological  specialists.  Hence  though  Ritschl  and  Mommsen, 
as  Mr.  Roby  says,  "know  more  of  the  Duellian  inscription  than 
Quintilian,"  it  is  Quintilian  and  not  Ritschl  that  they  will  prefer 
to  read.  I  hope  that  we  shall  not  forget  to  read  the  classics, 
whether  Latin,  Greek  or  English,  in  our  eagerness  to  read  what 
critics  say  about  them.  I  hope  that  the  scientific  study  of  liter- 
ature will  not  destroy  our  love  of  literature,  or  lead  us  to  forget 
that  its  function  is  to  please.  I  hope  that  in  these  days  of 
original  research,  and  when  a  man  must  do  homage  to  King 
Arithmos  if  he  would  be  great  in  science,  or  unearth  a  new  fact 
by  diving  into  some  forgotten  closet,  if  he  would  stand  among 
the  immortals  who  have  done  what  they  call  original  work,  we 
shall  not  forget  that  there  is  still  a  place  for  literary  art,  that 
form  and  grace,  that  wealth  of  allusion  and  easy  intellectual  pose 
still  count  for  something  in  education.  Hence  I  hope  that  we 
shall  increase  our  facilities  for  knowing  the  resources  of  our  own 
language,  and  that  the  literatures  of  Italy  and  Spain  will  be  open 
to  those  who  wish  to  read  them. 

Far  be  it  from  me,  however,  to  have  literature  cultivated  at 
the  expense  of  science.  Philosophy  and  science  are  to  give  us 
the  poetry  of  the  future.  What  is  "  In  Memoriam  "  but  crystal- 
ized  philosophy  ?  But  for  Tennyson's  knowledge  of  the  forms 
and  processes  of  modern  thought,  we  should  never  have  had 
those  "jewels  five-words  long  that  on  the  outstretched  finger  of 


34 

time  sparkle  forever."  What  to  the  common  mind  is  the  dull 
carbon  of  dry  metaphysics,  in  the  hands  of  this  great  lapidary  is 
cut  into  the  gleaming  facets  of  the  diamond.  Philosophy  sits 
as  queen  among  the  sciences  and  we  see  her  dressed  in  her 
robes  of  state  when  we  turn  to  the  pages  of  Tennyson  and 
Browning. 

I  am  speaking  therefore  in  the  interest  of  literature  when  I 
commend  the  study  of  science  and  philosophy.  And  as  I  am 
speaking  of  literature  let  me  speak  on  a  subject  that  lies  on  the 
border-land  of  literature.  I  shall  be  sorry  for  Literature  when 
History  accepts  a  Fellowship  in  the  Royal  Society,  and  I  shall  be 
sorry  for  History  when  she  is  deserted  by  literary  artists,  and 
when  we  who  do  but  read  her  annals  must  encounter  the  dust  of 
the  state-paper  office.  Nevertheless  it  is  as  science  or  rather  as 
philosophy  that  History  should  be  taught.  I  have  no  desire  to 
see  numerous  courses  of  lectures  on  History  form  part  of  our 
curriculum  and  allowed  to  count  as  elective  studies.  For  if  this 
method  be  adopted  there  would  be  no  reason  why  such  courses 
should  not  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  History  can  be  made  an 
easy  study  and  as  it  becomes  easy  it  ceases  to  be  discipline,  and 
therefore  ceases  to  perform  its  proper  function  in  University 
training.  But  history  studied  as  Freeman  would  have  it  studied 
is  not  easy.  I  believe  that  Seeley  is  right  in  saying  that  history 
is  to  be  treated  philosophically.  The  march  of  events  must  be 
rubricised  under  some  conception:  shall  it  be  Comte's  or  Hegel's; 
Buckle's  or  Schelling's;  or  shall  we  stand  with  Augustine  and 
Bunsen,  with  Kingsley  and  Lilly,  and  see  in  the  logic  of  events 
the  thought  of  God  ?  It  is  from  the  experience  of  the  past  that' 
we  are  to  gather  the  canons  of  to-day.  History  in  this  way  takes 
its  place  in  a  group  of  studies  which — using  the  words  in  its  large 
Aristotelian  sense — we  may  call  the  Science  of  Politics.  As  in 
Ethics  we  deal  with  human  conduct  with  reference  to  the  in- 
dividual, so  in  Politics  we  consider  it  with  reference  to  society. 
I  think  that  the  first  thing  to  be  done  in  the  development  of 
Princeton  College  is  the  full  equipment  of  this  department  of 
politics.     There  is  room  for  the  specialist  in  Political  Economy, 


35 

and  I  could  hope  that  some  day  we  may  have  a  chair  exclusively 
devoted  to  it;  unless  Political  Economy  should  be  absorbed  in 
the  larger  department  of  Social  Science  as  some  of  the  Physical 
Sciences  are  absorbed  in  Biology.  It  is  manifest  that  as  our  life 
grows  more  complex,  new  questions  will  arise;  and  new  problems 
requiring  profound  investigation  and  needing  better  treatment 
than  they  get  at  the  hands  of  uneducated  men  with  good  motives, 
or  educated  men  with  false  premises  will  demand  attention.  In 
the  interests  of  national  integrity  it  is  important  that  they  shall 
be  dealt  with  in  our  collegfes;  and  that  our  graduates  who  what- 
ever  their  calling  may  be  will  have  the  influence  as  citizens  that 
is  accorded  to  learning,  should  have  a  training  that  will  enable 
them  to  deal  with  these  problems  by  taking  hold  of  the  philo- 
sophical principles  that  underlie  them.  I  hope  that  Social  Science 
at  no  distant  day  will  have  an  able  representative  in  our  Faculty. 
I  should  like  also  to  see  some  provision  made  for  instruction 
in  the  History  and  Philosophy  of  Jurisprudence.  I  am  not  think- 
ing of  a  professional  law  school,  though  even  that  may  come 
later.  It  will  be  said,  perhaps,  that  the  study  of  Roman  law  will 
not  help  a  man  to  try  cases,  I  have  no  right  to  an  opinion  on 
that  question.  But  I  know  that  the  man  who  understands  the 
history  of  jurisprudence,  who  knows  something  about  the  Pan- 
dects, or  has  looked  into  Gaius  and  Ulpian,  the  man  who  has 
read  Austin  and  Amos  and  Holland  and  Maine  and  Pollock  and 
Lorimer,  to  say  nothing  of  Savigny  and  Stahl,  will  go  to  the 
study  of  Coke  and  Blackstone,  Story  and  Greenleaf,  Washburn 
and  Parsons  a  broader  man,  and  that  he  will  be  a  better  jurist  if 
not  a  better  advocate.  I  believe,  too,  that  in  this  field  of  philo- 
sophical jurisprudence  there  is  a  comparatively  unoccupied  field, 
so  far  as  American  colleges  are  concerned,  and  both  for  the 
additions  that  may  be  made  to  Princeton's  fame,  as  well  as  for 
the  contribution  to  general  culture  that  would  result  from  the 
establishment  of  such  a  chair,  I  hope  for  its  foundation.  It  has 
been  my  habit  year  by  year  to  recommend  the  students  of  the- 
ology to  take  advantage  of  their  opportunities  to  study  juris- 
prudence, and  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  some  of 


36 

them  have  profited  by  my  advice.  It  does  a  man  no  harm  to  be 
trained  in  the  loofic  of  law;  and  it  is  of  no  little  advantaQ^e  to  the 
clergyman  to  read  the  jural  language  of  St,  Paul  in  the  light  of 
Roman  law,  to  learn  that  the  testamentary  idea  originated  in  the 
Roman  mind,  to  see  what  the.  jus  civile  has  done  for  Christianity, 
to  learn  how  law  in  great  measure  gave  form  to  theological  liter- 
ature, and  how  in  the  mellow  light  of  cathedral  windows  the 
marriage  of  jurisprudence  and  theology  was  effected.  Law  is 
science,  Mr.  Langdell  says,  and  he  teaches  it  in  Harvard  by  re- 
quiring his  students  to  ascertain  its  rules  by  induction  from  lead- 
ing cases.  Law  is  also  philosophy,  and  its  rules  rest  on  principles 
which  it  is  the  task  of  the  philosophical  historian  to  investigate. 
I  hope  that  Princeton  will  do  justice  to  her  position  in  philosophy 
by  dealing  with  this  great  department  of  life  under  philosophical 
rubrics. 

I  shall  hope  also  that  Philosophy,  strictly  so-called,  will  con- 
tinue to  occupy  the  place  in  this  institution  which  it  has  always 
had,  and  which  has  especially  been  given  to  it  during  the  adminis- 
tration of  Dr.  McCosh.  I  say  this  not  simply  because  I  think  it 
would  be  a  pity  for  Princeton  to  lose  any  of  her  philosophical 
prestige,  but  also  because  I  believe  that  all  interests  centre  in 
Philosophy.  Everything  that  we  hold  dear  in  faith  is  involved 
in  the  maintenance  of  the  a  prioj^i  eS.em.eViX.s  of  knowledge.  All 
departments  of  inquiry  are  interested  in  a  right  theory  of  knowl- 
edge. We  are  neither  Hegelians  nor  Comtists.  We  believe  in 
experience,  but  we  believe  in  the  categories  that  condition  the  pos- 
sibility of  experience.  Our  intuitionalism  unifies  all  our  studies, 
whether  they  be  in  the  region  of  science  or  literature,  of  history 
or  politics,  of  jurisprudence  or  art.  It  is  but  natural  that  I  should 
hope  for  a  reinforcement  as  soon  as  practicable  of  the  department 
of  philosophy.  And  as  I  shall  be  more  closely  related  to  the 
philosophical  department  than  any  other,  I  may  be  pardoned  if 
I  say  a  word  regarding  it.  No  department  of  College  instruc- 
tion should  be  handled  with  greater  care  than  this:  there  is  none 

o 

where  it  is  possible  to  do  greater  mischief.  If  a  man  goes  wrong 
here  he  goes  wrong  everywhere.     I   shall  feel  bound  to  watch 


37 
jealously  the  instruction  in  this  department.  And  yet  I  shall 
advocate — in  the  interests  of  truth  and  sound  learning — the  ex- 
jDansion  of  this  department.  The  hope  of  sound  philosophy  is 
in  seeing  to  it  that  sound  philosophers  are  not  behind  the  times. 
The  peril  of  having  eyes  is  that  they  may  lead  us  astray;  but  we 
cannot  afford  to  put  them  out.  If  we  are  to  study  philosophy 
we  must  use  and  scrutinize  philosophical  systems.  The  books 
in  our  Library  are  meant  to  be  read.  We  do  not  keep  a  philo- 
sophical museum  where  visitors  are  kindly  requested  not  to  handle 
the  specimens.  I  think  that  we  should  prosecute  the  study  of 
what  is  erroneously  called  the  new  psychology.  I  have  less  in- 
terest than  some  in  laboratory  work  in  the  study  of  the  mind, 
and  I  do  not  grow  enthusiastic  over  diagrams  that  represent  the 
daily  fluctuations  of  "  the  normal  knee-jerk;"  but  I  believe  that 
we  should  take  advantage  of  all  the  light  that  physiology  throws 
upon  the  problems  of  the  mind.  I  do  not  think  that  Hegel  has 
said  the  last  word  in  philosophy;  but  I  do  not  believe  that  we 
should  ignore  his  influence,  which,  though  it  be  an  evil,  is  yet  not 
an  unmitigated  evil.  Dr.  McCosh  has  been  too  independent 
himself  to  expect  or  even  to  desire  his  successors  in  the  chair  of 
psychology  to  accept  every  statement  he  has  made.  Yet  I  believe 
that  in  regard  to  the  main  points  of  his  contention  his  position  is 
not  only  true  but  vitally  related  to  all  truth.  And  I  furthermore 
believe  that  nothing  will  more  readily  lead  to  an  acknowledgment 
of  this  than  a  discriminating  study  of  the  history  of  philosophy. 
I  should  give  a  very  high  place  to  this  study  in  our  curriculum. 
Nothing  tends  to  quicken  a  man's  power  of  thought  more  than 
the  critical  study  of  the  history  of  philosophical  opinion,  and  it 
is  more  important  after  all  to  think  than  to  know  "the  time  it 
takes  to  think." 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Art  Building  will  commend  itself 
to  friends  who  will  secure  its  speedy  completion,  and  that  all 
requisite  instructors  in  that  department  will  be  provided.  We 
do  not  mean  to  establish  a  Conservatory  of  Music  or  a  School  of 
Painting.  Our  purpose  is  to  promote  aesthetic  philosophy  by 
lectures  on  the   History  of  Art  and  Archaeology,  and  for  such 


lectures  there  is  an  important  place  in  a  college  curriculum,  that 
aims  to  be  comprehensive. 

With  these  additions  to  our  curriculum,  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  make  some  new  adjustments,  at  least  in  the  Senior  year, 
regardino;  the  choice  of  electives.  As  far  as  my  present  light 
goes  I  see  no  better  way  than  that  of  allowing  a  man  at  the  close 
or  toward  the  middle  of  his  Junior  year  to  proceed  to  his  degree 
along  any  of  several  roads;  these  roads  being  indicated  roughly 
by  Literature,  Science  and  Philosophy,  each  being  again  divided 
into  parallel  paths — as  that  of  philosophy  might  be  into  pure 
philosophy,  political  science,  and  jurisprudence.  There  would 
be  difficulties  of  a  practical  kind  about  the  group-system  and  some 
concessions  should  be  made  to  those  who  raise  them,  but  such  a 
system  would  accomplish  several  results.  It  would  secure 
thorough  acquaintance  with  a  related  group  of  studies.  It  would 
be  a  protection  against  the  evil  effects  of  scattering  the  energies 
over  too  many  fields.  It  would,  therefore,  make  the  Bachelor's 
degree  significant  of  real  education. 

Such  a  system  would  naturally  be  arranged  according  to  the 
analogy  of  the  course  of  graduate  studies  that  now  lead  to  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Science  and  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  and 
would  be  the  best  preparation  for  them.  To  the  degree  of  B.D. 
and  Ph.D.,  which  we  now  give,  we  might  add,  as  soon  as  ade- 
quate provision  is  made  for  courses  in  jurisprudence,  the  degree 
of  LL. B.,  the  doctorate  in  both  Divinity  and  Law  remaining 
an  honorary  degree  as  at  present.  I  trust  that  these  graduate 
courses  will  be  developed  from  year  to  year  and  that  an  increas- 
ing number  of  graduates  will  avail  themselves  of  them.  To  this 
end  it  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that  the  University  Fellowships, 
the  object  of  which  is  to  encourage  specialized  study  on  the  part 
of  graduates,  should  be  added  to  as  rapidly  as  possible.  We 
have  now  the  names  of  ten  Fellows  on  our  cataloofue.  It  would 
add  incalculably  to  the  efficiency  of  the  college,  were  it  in  nothing 
but  the  stimulus  it  would  give  to  undergraduate  study,  if  we  had 
fifty  Fellows  in  attendance  every  year  engaged  in  advanced  work 
in  the  several  departments  of  inquiry.      And  lest  some  shall  sup- 


39 
pose  that  a  fellowship  is  a  premium  put  upon  learned  leisure,  let 
me  say  that  the  men  who  are  likely  to  apply  for  fellowships  are 
men  who,  for  the  most  part,  will  make  teaching  their  profession. 
There  is  a  growing  demand  for  training  teachers.  I  think  it  will 
be  a  good  thing  for  the  higher  education  in  this  country  when  it 
becomes  fully  understood  that  a  professor  can  secure  full  equip- 
ment for  his  work  in  the  largfer  colleo-es  of  our  own  land. 

On  the  grounds  already  given  I  have  taken  it  for  granted 
that  Princeton  is  a  University.  Into  the  question  regarding  a 
change  of  name  I  do  not  propose  to  enter.  It  is  a  matter  that 
when  the  time  comes  will  be  ^Visely  dealt  with,  and  I  doubt  not 
that  some  who  hear  me  to-day  will  feel  that  without  challenging 
my  position  it  would  be  unwise  to  make  any  change  in  our  cor- 
porate title  before  some  further  advance  has  been  made  in  the 
development  of  the  institution,  and  doubtless  there  is  great  force 
in  this  view,  I  have  indicated  in  a  general  way  the  line  of  pro- 
gress which  seems  to  be  before  the  College,  and  in  making  the 
suggestions  that  I  do  I  am  but  acting  in  the  spirit  "as  I  suppose 
of  Dr.  McCosh's  administration.  I  have  indicated  some  of  the 
educational  advantages  that  students  enjoy  and  ought  to  enjoy 
in  Princeton.  I  may,  therefore,  very  properly  in  my  closing 
words  speak  with  more  special  reference  to  the  students  them- 
selves. We  shall  never  let  a  student  leave  Princeton,  if  we  can 
help  it,  for  lack  of  accommodation,  so  long  as  there  is  a  room  to  be 
rented  in  the  town;  the  students  however  would  prefer  to  live  in  a 
College  Hall,  and  we  should  prefer  to  have  all  of  them  do  so;  but 
until  we  can  get  a  new  dormitory  that  is  out  of  the  question. 
We  shall  never  let  a  worthy  student  go  away  from  Princeton 
through  lack  of  ability  to  pay  his  tuition  fees;  and  it  not  uncom- 
monly happens  that  the  brightest  and  best  men,  the  men  who 
give  greatest  promise  of  usefulness  and  stand  at  the  head  of  their 
classes,  find  it  hard  to  meet  the  necessary  expenses  even  when 
tuition  is  remitted,  and  tuition  is  remitted  every  year  to  the 
amount  of  about  $15,000.  This  is  offset  by  the  income  of  $5,000 
from  scholarships,  and  the  College  is  thus  giving  away  every  year 
about  $10,000  in  free  tuition.     We  have  seventy-two  scholarships 


.  40 

of  $i,ooo  each.  We  need  one  hundred  more.  We  do  not  teach 
our  students  to  spend  ^i,ooo  a  year,  as  Sir  Lyon  Playfair  says 
the  English  universities  do,  and  I  fear  that  we  cannot  always  teach 
them  to  make  ^i  ,000  a  year  as  the  same  gentleman  says  the  Scotch 
universities  do.  We  may  find  it  difficult  sometimes  to  cultivate 
literature  on  a  little  oatmeal;  but  I  am  able  to  say,  after  careful 
inquiry,  that  a  man  of  moderate  means  need  not  hesitate  to  send 
his  sons  to  Princeton.  We  have  no  wish  to  make  a  Princeton 
degree  a  rich  man's  luxury.  Our  students  come  mainly  from  the 
Middle  States.  Some  come  from  the  West,  and  some  will,  con- 
tinue to  come  I  hope,  notwithstanding  the  growth  of  the  colleges 
that  are  doino;  such  admirable  work  in  that  region.  With  the 
establishment  of  State  universities  in  the  South  we  may  expect 
that  Southern  students  for  the  most  part  will  seek  their  educa- 
tion nearer  home:  but  there  are  many  living  under  those  south- 
ern skies  who  remember  "Old  Princeton"  as  their  Alma  Mater; 
and  I  would  like  to  say  to  them  to-day,  since  "  the  war  drums 
beat  no  longer  and  the  battle  flags  are  furled,"  that  it  is  the  same 
old  Princeton  that  now  invites  them  with  their  sons  to  revisit  the 
academic  homestead. 

Sir  Alexander  Grant  reminds  us  that  when  we  use  the  word 
"college"  as  distinct  from  the  word  "university,"  the  idea  of  a  family, 
a  home,  attaches  especially  to  the  former  word.  In  this  sense  we 
do  not  wish  to  outo-row  the  term.  A  man  misses  much  of  colleee 
education  who  lives  in  the  city  and  rides  to  lectures  on  the  street 
car.  Men  thrown  together  in  residence  educate  one  another,  as 
Newman  says.  An  education  thus  obtained  is  quite  as  valuable 
in  its  way  as  that  derived  from  the  text-book  or  the  lecture.  The 
English  universities  make  gentlemen,  Huber  says:  I  would  have 
a  university  do  more  than  that,  but  that  is  not  a  little  thing  to  do. 
I  hope  that  besides  doing  this,  the  effect  of  under-graduate 
life  in  Princeton  is  to  cultivate  the  character  and  foster  a  manly 
spirit.  I  think  we  give  a  mental  training  here  that  will  fit  men 
to  do  their  work  in  life  with  credit  and  success.  Those  who  love 
study  have  ample  opportunities  to  gratify  their  desires;  and  those 
who  do  not  love  it  are  under  constrainino-  influences.      I   do  not 


41 

think  that  either  the  phrensy  of  amusements  or  the  phrensy  of 
examinations  of  which  Mr.  Freeman  speaks,  exists  among  us  in  a 
form  sufficiently  aggravated  to  distract  the  minds  of  serious  men. 
We  have. idle  men,  to  be  sure,  and  if  we  could  put  implicit  confi- 
dence in  Mr.  Mahaffy  who  when  speaking  of  Des  Cartes  lets  fall 
the  statement  that  "a.  ereat  deal  of  idleness  is  indeed  the  condi- 
tion  of  the  highest  and  the  most  lasting  diligence,"  we  might  be 
looking  by  and  by  for  some  epoch-making  books  from  men  who 
as  undergraduates  cannot  be  said  to  be  spoiling  their  future  by 
premature  and  excessive  mental  application.  There  is  however 
a  great  deal  of  hard  and  high-class  work  done  by  our  undergradu- 
ates. It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  our  students  come  only  for 
athletics.  This,  by  the  way,  is  a  subject  of  recognized  difficulty 
in  college  manasfement.  llie  evils  connected  with  athletics  should 
be  checked,  but  I  should  be  sorry  to  lose  the  lessons  of  manliness 
that  athletics  teach.  Let  us  remember  what  Helmholtz  says: 
"  The  more  young  men  are  cut  off  from  fresh  air  and  from  the 
opportunity  of  vigorous  exercise,  the  more  induced  will  they  be 
to  seek  an  apparent  refreshment  in  the  misuse  of  tobacco  and 
intoxicating  drinks."  The  gymnasium  has  my  vote  as  an  agent 
in  moral  reform. 

I  ought  to  say  moreover  that  there  is  a  strong  religious  influ- 
ence exerted  in  Princeton  College.  The  exercises  in  Murray  Hall 
are  a  marked  feature  of  College  life.  It  deserves  to  be  said  more- 
over that  although,  the  matter  of  giving  Biblical  instruction  in 
'Colleges  is  only  now  beginning  to  excite  attention  in  some  quarters, 
it  has  never  been  neglected  here.  I  should  be  sorry  if  I  could 
not  hope  that  my  influence  upon  the  College  might  tend  in  some 
deeree  to  strenethen  Christian  faith  and  foster  Christian  life. 

I  am  reminded,  as  I  speak,  of  the  manifold  relations  I  sustain 
and  of  the  various  forms  of  obligation  imposed  upon  me  by  the 
official  connection  that  has  been  formed  to-day  between  the  college 
and  myself.  For  I  shall  owe  a  duty  not  to  students  only,  but  to  all 
the  interests  that  are  represented  in  the  college.  I  desire  my 
relations  to  the  students  to  be  fruitful  of  the  best  results,  and,  there- 
fore, I  wish  to  know  them  individually  and  count  them  my  personal 


42 

friends.  I  shall  hope  as  year  by  year  they  go  out  to  join  their 
fellow-alumni,  scattered  over  the  world,  to  follow  them  as  far  as 
possible  with  a  personal  interest  in  their  career,  and  as  my  pre- 
decessor has  done  with  such  conspicuous  success,  to  keep  the  great 
body  of  the  graduates  interested  in  the  progress  of  their  Alma 
Mater  by  telling  them  of  our  affairs  and  how  we  do,  when  from 
time  to  time  the  pleasure  is  afforded  me  of  sharing  the  hospitali- 
ties of  their  annual  reunions.  In  taking  up  my  work  I  know  that 
I  have  much  to  learn  regarding  the  institution  of  which  I  know 
so  much  already.  I  count  it  one  of  my  special  causes  for  gratifica- 
tion that  I  shall  be  able  to  fall  back  from  time  to  time  upon  the 
wise  counsel  of  the  Dean  of  the  College,  who  has  rendered  services 
of  priceless  value  to  this  institution,  and  who  I  am  sure  will  give 
me  the  advantage  of  his  large  experience  in  the  way  that  an  old 
friendship  will  suggest.  I  shall  not  cease  to  be  a  professor  by 
becoming  the  President  of  the  College:  and  I  must  be  allowed  to 
magnify  my  office  and  to  have  the  same  zeal  for  my  department 
that  my  colleagues  in  the  faculty  have  for  their's.  I  owe  it  to  my- 
self to  see  to  it  that  my  occupancy  of  this  place  does  not  operate 
to  the  disadvantage  of  those  qualities  which  suggested  my  eleva- 
tion to  it.  I  should  soon  demonstrate  my  unfitness  for  this 
position  were  I  to  lose  my  hold  upon  those  departments  of  study 
to  which  I  have  heretofore  eiven  attention.  I  am  encourao;-ed  in 
the  feeling  that  a  man  may  hold  a  book  in  one  hand  and  the  reins 
of  government  in  the  other  when  I  remember  that  Dr.  Wayland, 
Dr.  Woolsey,  Dr.  Hopkins  and  Dr.  McCosh,  who  certainly  will 
always  rank  among  the  great  College  Presidents  of  America,  found 
time  amid  the  pressure  of  administrative  duties  to  publish  treatises 
and  act  as  leaders  of  thought.  I  believe,  however,  that  the 
Trustees  do  not  think  it  necessary  for  me  to  promise  them  that  I 
will  not  neglect  my  studies.  They,  perhaps,  are  waiting  for  some 
evidence  that  they  have  not  seated  a  mere  book-worm  in  the 
Presidential  chair,  and  I  beg  to  say  that  I  will  furnish  that  at  my 
earliest  convenience. 

True  culture  culminates  in  religion.       True  philosophy  has 
God  as  its  postulate;  true  science  reaches  God  as  its  conclusion. 


43 

The  education  therefore  that  is  to  prove  a  valuable  element  in 
civilization  cannot  afford  to  be  indifferent  to  the  claims  of  divine 
truth.  The  best  Christians  are  the  best  citizens.  Without  faith 
in  the  next  world  we  shall  soon  lose  interest  in  this.  It  is  not 
enough,  therefore,  that  we  seek  to  train  men  who  are  skilled  in 
mathematics,  and  cultivated  in  the  knowleg^e  of  the  sfreat  litera- 
tures  of  the  world.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  be  abreast  of  the 
times  in  regard  to  the  great  inductions  of  science  or  that  our 
professors  are  well-read  in  the  latest  utterances  of  German  philos- 
ophy. It  is  not  enough  that  we  maintain  no  hostile  attitude  to 
religion,  and  that  we  teach  men  to  think  on  the  great  problems 
of  the  social  economy  without  prejudice  to  their  hereditary  beliefs. 
It  is  not  enough  that  we  have  Christian  services  on  Sunday  and 
that  ample  accommodations  are  furnished  those  who  by  taste  and 
training  are  disposed  to  engage  in  concerted  effort  to  promote  a 
wholesome  religious  sentiment  in  the  College.  There  should  be 
distinct,  earnest,  purposeful  effort  to  show  every  man  who  enters" 
our  College  Halls  the  grounds  for  entertaining  those  fundamental 
religious  beliefs  that  are  the  common  heritage  of  the  Christian 
world.  The  necessary  effect  of  education  is  that  of  awakening 
the  spirit  of  inquiry  on  all  subjects.  And  we  have  no  right  to 
conduct  a  course  of  study  the  object  of  which  is  to  tell  a  man  to 
think,  to  induce  a  man  to  think,  to  train  a  man  to  think;  and  tlie 
effect  of  which  is  a  tendency  at  least  to  bring  the  naive  convictions 
of  childhood  before  the  bar  of  reason,  that  they  may  show  cause 
why  they  should  not  be  abandoned — -without  at  the  same  time 
doing  something  to  strengthen  faith,  and  give  it  a  reasoned 
position.  I  am  happy  to  say  that  this  matter  has  always  been 
attended  to  here:  and  I  can  only  add  that  if  I  can  do  any  thing 
in  the  pulpit  or  the  lecture-room,  by  spoken  word  or  printed  page, 
in  the  formality  of  professorial  instruction  or  the  informality  of 
friendly  talk,  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  my  colleagues  who  are 
alreadv  enoraeed  in  the  work  of  relifjious  instruction,  I  shall  con- 
sider  the  opportunity  of  doing  so  one  of  the  supreme  privileges  of 
my  position.  I  believe  in  the  education  that  fits  men  not  only  for 
life  but  for  eternal  life.      And  so  believine   I   commit  mvself  to 


44 

the  guidance  of  God,  and  commend  this  College  to  his  grace,  en- 
treating that  during  the  time  that  I  shall  serve  it  as  in  former 
years  this  seat  of  learning  alike  in  the  work  that  it  may  do  for 
science  and  the  witness  that  it  may  bear  to  revealed  truth  may 
promote  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  to 
whom  be  glory  ever-more. 


Date  Due 


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